I'm firmly anti-favor, yet we had them at my wedding because my mother was horrified at the thought that a daughter of hers wouldn't give favors at her party! At least she did them herself and they were really yummy homemade chocolates, so most people seemed to enjoy them.

My number one pet peeve is something engraved with the names of the couple and their wedding date. I've received wine glasses, picture frames, coasters, matchbooks, shot glasses, tote bags... you name it. And frankly, I have thrown them away or donated them to charity. I don't like picture frames with writing on them, and what am I going to do with a frame with other people's names on it other than put a picture of them in it? That might be fine if it was my sister or something, but do I really want a framed wedding picture of my husband's coworker? No. Same for the monogrammed wine glasses and coasters... I already have my matching sets of coasters and wine glasses that I prefer, that don't have names scrawled on them. The only non-food favors I've kept are matchbooks because my husband uses them to light candles.

Even donating these items to charities isn't always a win-win situation. I volunteer at a charity thrift-shop and you wouldn't believe the number of engraved shot-glasses that we get, such as "Cheryl and Dave, September 14 2010". Honestly, they don't sell even for a few cents and we generally have to discard them. Really, if Cheryl and Dave's friends don't want the "favour", why would perfect strangers? I'm in the "don't notice favours at all" camp.

I too think that consumables are the best bet if a HC insists on wedding favours. However, while the half-bottles of hand-bottled wine might seem to be a nice idea, it too is not foolproof. The venue where DS #1 is having his wedding next year is very clear that the only food/drink allowable from "outside" is a wedding cake.

We had wrapped chocolates strewn over the tables at our reception. No-one could know who had eaten theirs or not, because they weren't assigned to a person, and a few people collected the leftovers at the end of the night to take home.

I have no problem throwing away knick knacks of any kind, even wedding favours, so mostly that's what I do.

When I was in my very early twenties, a friend was married who was a mechanic, and all the male guests got a little pull back toy car. Our table had lots of fun shooting cars across the table at each other. But now I'm 35, I wouldn't do that at a wedding, so an idea that was cute and fun for a youngish crowd would fall pretty flat for me now. Although now I'd take them home for my kids, so maybe it would still be OK!

I'm firmly anti-favor, yet we had them at my wedding because my mother was horrified at the thought that a daughter of hers wouldn't give favors at her party! At least she did them herself and they were really yummy homemade chocolates, so most people seemed to enjoy them.

My number one pet peeve is something engraved with the names of the couple and their wedding date. I've received wine glasses, picture frames, coasters, matchbooks, shot glasses, tote bags... you name it. And frankly, I have thrown them away or donated them to charity. I don't like picture frames with writing on them, and what am I going to do with a frame with other people's names on it other than put a picture of them in it? That might be fine if it was my sister or something, but do I really want a framed wedding picture of my husband's coworker? No. Same for the monogrammed wine glasses and coasters... I already have my matching sets of coasters and wine glasses that I prefer, that don't have names scrawled on them. The only non-food favors I've kept are matchbooks because my husband uses them to light candles.

Even donating these items to charities isn't always a win-win situation. I volunteer at a charity thrift-shop and you wouldn't believe the number of engraved shot-glasses that we get, such as "Cheryl and Dave, September 14 2010". Honestly, they don't sell even for a few cents and we generally have to discard them. Really, if Cheryl and Dave's friends don't want the "favour", why would perfect strangers? I'm in the "don't notice favours at all" camp.

I too think that consumables are the best bet if a HC insists on wedding favours. However, while the half-bottles of hand-bottled wine might seem to be a nice idea, it too is not foolproof. The venue where DS #1 is having his wedding next year is very clear that the only food/drink allowable from "outside" is a wedding cake.

Oh yes, I should've been more specific. There are a few that we received that were initials only - for example, a set of wineglasses, one with the bride's first initial and one with the groom's. So those I donated, because while I have no need for a wineglass with the letter C on it, someone else might. Anything that's more specific (multiple initials, or names and dates) gets tossed unless I can somehow take off the personalization or put it in the recycling.

We made little message holders - took a small glazed tile and stenciled it with a design in our wedding colors and it was glued to a silvery clothepin type thing ( OK DH made this .... I am so not crafty ). They were the place cards for the tables and you took them. I know several people who still use them....

Even donating these items to charities isn't always a win-win situation. I volunteer at a charity thrift-shop and you wouldn't believe the number of engraved shot-glasses that we get, such as "Cheryl and Dave, September 14 2010". Honestly, they don't sell even for a few cents and we generally have to discard them. Really, if Cheryl and Dave's friends don't want the "favour", why would perfect strangers? I'm in the "don't notice favours at all" camp.

I'm the one weirdo that buys those things out of the thirft stores

I'm working on getting a full set of wine glasses with other people's names engraved on them. I get a huge kick out of it. I've even got a great glass for bubbly which was engraved with the name of a priest on what I assume was the date he was ordained? Or maybe another big event? I'm not sure I could explain the appeal. It's something about preserving the history that other people want to throw away. It's very personal history. Like the photographs you buy at antique shops (I purchase those too and sometimes frame them)

My sister wasn't interested in the pastel mints that were the usual favors in our area at the time of her wedding, so she wasn't going to have any at all. A week or two before the wedding, she realized that pastel mints weren't the only option. Smarties (the Canadian kind, which are basically m&m's without the m's printed on them) were significant to her and her fiance, so we bought Smarties in bulk. We also bought tissue and curling ribbon in wedding colors, and bought a sleeve of creamer containers from the local dairy. Fill the creamer container with Smarties, cover the open mouth with a square of tissue paper, and tie the corners together behind the base. Voila! a little "wedding bell" with tasty candies.

I don't know if my younger sister ever gave a thought to omitting favors at all. She had a small wedding, though, so she folded origami swans (which her husband carefully personalized with their names and the date), and tucked an individually-wrapped slice of Terry's Chocolate Orange into each wing. The wedding photo collection includes a series of pics of my uncle carefully unfolding the swan to see how it was constructed.

At my wedding, we gave out fridge magnets with our picture and contact information on it (address, email addresses, and phone number), and a small packet of pansy seed. We had pansies as a part of our centerpieces. We still have lots of pansy seed (that will have a poor germination rate by now, poor things) and a lot of fridge magnets left over, but I did notice that friends who married six months after us also gave personalized fridge magnets as favors.

All that being said, I find that favors are mostly useless and awkward, because it's hard to come up with something that is to everyone's taste. Consumables are the exception.

Even donating these items to charities isn't always a win-win situation. I volunteer at a charity thrift-shop and you wouldn't believe the number of engraved shot-glasses that we get, such as "Cheryl and Dave, September 14 2010". Honestly, they don't sell even for a few cents and we generally have to discard them. Really, if Cheryl and Dave's friends don't want the "favour", why would perfect strangers? I'm in the "don't notice favours at all" camp.

I'm the one weirdo that buys those things out of the thirft stores

I'm working on getting a full set of wine glasses with other people's names engraved on them. I get a huge kick out of it. I've even got a great glass for bubbly which was engraved with the name of a priest on what I assume was the date he was ordained? Or maybe another big event? I'm not sure I could explain the appeal. It's something about preserving the history that other people want to throw away. It's very personal history. Like the photographs you buy at antique shops (I purchase those too and sometimes frame them)

I love this! I'm not a collector at all, so I wouldn't do it myself, but I would get a big kick out of going to a party where the drinks were served in a variety of engraved glassware! Plus it's a good way to keep track of your drink -- oh, you're "Martha and Jeff 4-ever 1982"?

We have a local breakfast place that serves coffee in a mishmash of mugs, clearly collected from the local thrift stores. It gives the place such a fun vibe.

Now that idea - glasses with other peoples names and dates on them - is right up my alley.

I'd also dearly love that sort of thing.

It would be fun to have a dinner party and ask guests to make up a story about the Wedding of 'Jack and Diane' or 'Tony and Tina'. What was a Wedding like in 1972? Did they have kids? Did the marriage last? Where are they now?

Imaginative minds could create great stories for these people we've never seen.

I've been to/heard about several weddings now where they rent a photo booth and fill it with fun props and costume things. Your printed out pictures serve as a favor. It's nice to get a nice picture of Dh and I all dressed up having fun and serves as a nice memory of the day. Plus I can just stick it in a photo album. Otherwise, something edible or nothing is the only favor I care to get.

I've been to/heard about several weddings now where they rent a photo booth and fill it with fun props and costume things. Your printed out pictures serve as a favor. It's nice to get a nice picture of Dh and I all dressed up having fun and serves as a nice memory of the day. Plus I can just stick it in a photo album. Otherwise, something edible or nothing is the only favor I care to get.

We just went to a wedding recently that had this. It was fun and we had a good time messing around in the photo booth with different friends at the wedding. But if you put a gun to my head and asked me where those pictures are now, I couldn't tell you.

I've been to/heard about several weddings now where they rent a photo booth and fill it with fun props and costume things. Your printed out pictures serve as a favor. It's nice to get a nice picture of Dh and I all dressed up having fun and serves as a nice memory of the day. Plus I can just stick it in a photo album. Otherwise, something edible or nothing is the only favor I care to get.

We just went to a wedding recently that had this. It was fun and we had a good time messing around in the photo booth with different friends at the wedding. But if you put a gun to my head and asked me where those pictures are now, I couldn't tell you.

We've talked about doing this at our wedding (some of them "save" one for the couple to have too), I love goofy pics and snapshots. Seriously, I wish the having disposable cameras on the table hadn't fallen out of fashion, I'd rather fun snapshots from my friends over posed and stiff any day of the week (as it is we plan on telling the wedding photog to go candid over posed, a few posed is fine, but I'd rather look natural).

For what it's worth (a lot, since we didn't pay a pro photographer!), we did do disposable cameras on the tables at our wedding. They worked out to $2/$3 each on Amazon for "cute" cameras, plus another $3 or so each for developing. The main complications were that one roll turned out terrible (all gray) and it was a small hassle to find a local film processor, but otherwise, I was thrilled with it. And with doubles, we could send them out to our guests with our thank-yous.

If you do it, I suggest putting a note with each camera about how to use it (some of our younger guests had forgotten or never knew) and what to do with it when they're done.

I've been to/heard about several weddings now where they rent a photo booth and fill it with fun props and costume things. Your printed out pictures serve as a favor. It's nice to get a nice picture of Dh and I all dressed up having fun and serves as a nice memory of the day. Plus I can just stick it in a photo album. Otherwise, something edible or nothing is the only favor I care to get.

We just went to a wedding recently that had this. It was fun and we had a good time messing around in the photo booth with different friends at the wedding. But if you put a gun to my head and asked me where those pictures are now, I couldn't tell you.

We had a DIY photobooth, but I also saw lots of professional ones at wedding shows - for most of them, they could have it print up 2 copies, one for the folks being photographed, and one to be stuck in a guest book. I thought that was pretty awesome.

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